Why bike lanes are not cool

Bicycling isn’t cool, which isn’t to say that it can’t be. It simply doesn’t matter. Sewer pipes and water mains aren’t cool. They’re logical. What does the logic of bicycling and moving human excrement and water have in common? Perhaps surprisingly, through the right lens of analysis, they’re the same thing.

Introducing bicycling infrastructure into cities is becoming a popular topic of city planners and bicycle advocates. The narrative has been largely constructed around the appropriateness of catering the design of roads, and cities in general, to the additional requirement of bike lanes. The debate is not without controversy. Questions have been raised about the impacts to local commerce when vehicle lanes are turned into bicycle lanes – as though bicycling versus driving will affect the exchange of goods and services. Other vocal opposition concerns the viability of cycling in cities that have seasons. “It snows here!” Perhaps to lessen the negative feedback, the conversation about bicycle infrastructure needs to be looked at through a wider-angle lens.

Roads, sidewalks and the utilities under them are predominantly a part of the public infrastructure. Their role, in the most reductionist form, is to move what they are designed for, be it people in vehicles or data in fibre optic cables. In this light, it becomes an exercise in stating the obvious that bicycle lanes, like roads and sidewalks, are for the movement of people and, therefore, should be part of the public infrastructure. This doesn’t reduce bicycling to a utility (nor does it driving or walking), but rather recognizes the purpose of our asphalt and concrete planar environment.

I would go further though to suggest that “bicycle lanes” are not without issue. We should be cautious when building anything that is for the provision of a single-use when it comes from the public purse, unless it is resolutely single-use infrastructure. The collection of taxes should be redistributed by our governments to build infrastructure and develop services to maximize access to the greatest amount of citizens in the public realm. Bicycle lanes provide a convenient insight into this perspective.

Through a simple model we can analyze this concept of maximizing access for the maximum benefit of the public good. A road right of way, reduced to its basic utilitarian elements, is composed of two surfaces: one for pedestrians, the other for vehicles. There are two areas for two types of movement patterns. By augmenting our understanding of roads as the provision of use – pedestrians and vehicles – to that of speed of travel, we can better nuance what a road should offer to its users. Designing roads this way, instead of for use, we expand the possibility of access to the public through various modes of travel.

All roads are not equal, nor should they be. However, by placing them within the context of neighbourhood layout, we can learn how best to recognize their inequality. Many transportation engineers adhere to a basic transportation hierarchy. Pedestrian movement is at the top of the hierarchy and single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) round out the bottom. Simply, the provision of transportation choices should first go to pedestrians and lastly SOVs. Because the design of roads cannot be divorced from the design of communities they provide access to, the transportation hierarchy can be a helpful component in how best to build our urban environment. Depending on where the road is within a neighbourhood, it can be designed to cater for pedestrian and bicycle speeds first and motorized vehicles speeds last. Roads peripheral to the community, being arterial, can cater to vehicle and bicycle speeds first and pedestrians last.[i]

I’m aware that I’m reducing cities to movement patterns, but I’ll do my best to address one topic at a time (which, I’d argue, is almost impossible when dealing with “urbanism”). I’ll conclude this article, however, by trying to lessen this shortcoming.

If a city were to address movement speeds instead of the current debate about bicycle lanes, bicycling loses its pejorative special interest group or subculture status. This is an important step in advancing the overall discussion about the design of cities. Recently, however, the subculture status of bicycling is being reinforced by framing the conversations around fashion. This subjugates it to an urban accessory rather than a vital component of public infrastructure. Fashion is an expression of the self. It can come from the shoes you wear, to the car your drive to the bicycle you peddle. It is a beautiful thing that adds excitement to our species. But raising awareness about urban cycling through what type of basket you should hang from your handlebar can establish a belief about bicycling infrastructure that it is a trend rather than a public good. Commentary about fashion should be on people and their culture, be it bicycling or whichever hobby or sport, but not the activity itself.

Our movement systems, be it water mains or sidewalks, are one of the fundamental components of our urban environments. To marginalize this conversation to a fashion trend, we lose insight into recognizing the intent of our public infrastructure. Infrastructure that is adaptable in terms of uses not only provides a greater cost/benefit to public purse expenditures but also begins to move us away from what is cool towards what maximizes our urban experiences.

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